The “O” in FOCUS stands for:

Opt out of a few things

As you go through your week be on the look out for things that crowd your life but do not bring value.

My mentor, Barbara Hemphill, always said  that a productive environment is “an intentional setting in which  everything around you supports your goals and who you want to be”.  Sit with that for a minute. ….   Now look around your desk, your home, your emails and what do you find there that does not support your goals and who you want to be?  Here are a few examples of things I have found that don’t bring value to my life:

1. Subscribing to a blog feed that I never read
2. Getting an weekly email that had quotes that I never found useful
3. Magazines that I never read
4. The weekend newspaper
5. A networking group that met in the evening

This short list is an example of how, over a period of time, we fail to see the things that are not useful.  While we do not “see” them, they do add to the mental clutter of our minds.  Seeing the weekend paper, for example, stack up on the entry table makes me feel guilty for not taking the time to read it.  I also feel the neglected newspaper is a waste of natural resources if I am not using it; after all, trees were cutdown to make that newspaper.

In order to focus, we must opt out of a few things.  These things may be in the “background” of our day to day life and we may not pay much attention to them.  However, they are still in our peripheral. If we want better focus and more time in our day, we need to get rid of the unproductive things to make room for life.

So, I’m curous. What can you opt out of this week?  Post a comment here.